What’s your next IT project?

April 2012

Dell recommends Windows® 7.

What’s your next IT project?


3See more online Dell.co.uk/itproject

How to make IT work for you 3

Getting started: virtualization 5

Getting started: cloud computing 6

Getting started: mobile working 9

Getting started: outsourcing IT support 10

Taking the next step 12

About this guide.For businesses like yours, a stable IT system is a vital part of the enterprise activity. In fact, you pride yourself on making sure that technology works for your business. It’s how you’ve managed to survive, in spite of the challenging economic climate. A time will come, though, when you need to consider expanding your IT system. If not, you run the risk of undermining your performance and limiting your business’ potential for growth.

This guide will help you to decide which of the new technologies on offer today can best help your business move forward to a more successful future. As well as looking at the benefits of some of the latest IT innovations in business today, it offers useful advice on how to get started. So now you can look forward to making IT work even harder for your business.

Is your small business primed for growth? A Dell PowerEdge™ server preinstalled with Microsoft® Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is ideal for businesses with up to 25 users and provides the systems, software, and services to organize your business quickly and easily, even without dedicated IT staff.

With this solution, you will have:• Easyautomatedback-upthathelps

prevent files from being lost or damaged

• Asecurenetworkforyourbusiness– easy to manage even without dedicated IT staff

• Access,printandsharefromanywhere

• OptionalDellProSupport™

Protect what you have.Work where you want.

*Leasing costs are quoted on a Per Month (PM) basis. Lease for UK customers who intend to use the equipment for business purposes only. Lease available from Dell Capital Services (provided by GE Capital SolutionsLimited) - 2630 The Quadrant, Aztec West, Bristol BS32 4GQ Registered in England and Wales No. 06299476. VAT No : GB 545 723044. Registered office: Meridian, Trinity Square, 23/59 Staines Road, Hounslow, Middlesex. TW3 3HF. Prices exclude VAT. Min. order value £300. Max. order value £75,000. All applications are subject to status and acceptance by Dell Capital Services. An automatic credit scoring system may be used when assessing an application. The prices shown are not binding on Dell Capital Services and may vary without notice. Documentation fee applies. The Terms and Conditions of Hire and a written quotation are available upon request. Dell Products, Registered in Ireland. Reg. No. 191034 c/o P.O. Box 69, Bracknell, Berkshire RG 12 1RD. Subject to availability. Terms and Conditions of Sales, Service and Finance apply and are available on www.dell.co.uk. Third party products are covered by third party manufacturer’s warranty. Prices and specifications are correct at date of publication and may change without notice. Saving is the difference between total package price compared to current online sales price if the promotional components were upgraded individually. Promotional offers limited to maximum 5 systems per customer. Actual hard drive capacity will be less due to material and operating system which are preloaded. Actual results will vary. Availability and terms of Dell Services vary by region. They are subject to Terms and Conditions which can be found at www.dell.co.uk/servicedescriptions/smallandmediumbusiness. Dell Services do not affect customer’s statutory rights. Microsoft®, Windows®, Microsoft® Office 2010 and Windows® 7 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Intel, the Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Offer expires 02/05/2012.

Call 0844 444 3886

Take the next step to grow your business.

WAS £826

Excl. VAT & Delivery

PowerEdge™ T110 IIYour ideal first server solutionLease

• Intel® Core™ i3-2100 Processor (3.10GHz, 3MB Cache)

• Microsoft® Small Business Server 2011 Essentials• 2GB Memory• 500GB Hard Drive• 3 Years Basic Service – Next Business DayINCLUDES

E-Value™ code: NPUK4-PET110II_SOLE

INCLUDES £174 SAVINGS

Recommended upgrades:• Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Standard

Edition• 8GB Memory• 3 Years ProSupport

Lease as low as: 36 months’ lease ££22.11 PM*

£589

See more online Dell.co.uk/itproject


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Not sure which technologies will best suit your business needs?Embarking on a new IT project can help your business meet these sorts of challenges. But with limited resources at your disposal and a deluge of new technologies now available, it pays to think smart. You need to decide which technologies to implement in order to maximize benefits to your business, whilst minimising costs.

• Thinkflexibility.BusinessesthatuseITtoworkmoreflexiblycanreactfasterto changing customer and market demands.

• Thinkagility.ResponsiveIThelpstoprovide higher service levels, greater reliability and higher reductions in TCO.

• Thinkmobility.Out-of-officeemployees who have a secure, efficientandon-demandlinktotheofficenetworkcandeliverincreasedproductivity and higher levels of performance.

Virtualization, cloud computing and mobile IT are new technologies that can helpdriveagility,mobilityandflexibilityinyour business.

However, they can also change the way that your IT environment needs to be managed. Implementing an outsourced service contract may be your best option to cut through any confusion and avoid expensive missteps.

Stay up to date with the latest technology from Dell

You need to:1. EnsurethatITinfrastructuremeetseverhigheron-demandneedsof

employees, customers and business partners.

2.Preventsecuritythreatstobusiness-criticaldata,particularlywhenitmovesoutoftheofficeandoutontotheroad.

3. Stay up to date with the latest technology. For smaller businesses, for whom a dedicated IT team isn’t a feasible option, this can be a significant undertaking.

4. Meet the financial burden of replacing or upgrading IT systems, especially those that require significant capital expenditure.

How to make IT work for you

Take a long hard look at how you do business. There’s never been a better time.It’s becoming increasingly clear that businesses need to spend more time looking at the way hey use IT as part of their overall business strategy. That doesn’t just mean what’s happening today, but what may happen in the long term. To compete effectively, your business needs an IT infrastructure that allows it to meet dynamic market demands and maximise the use of limited IT resources. In short, it’s more important than ever that you take a fresh look at the challenges you face in business.



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APC by Schneider Electric is making the right connections for maximum efficiency and availability

©2010 Schneider Electric Industries SAS, All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric, APC, and EcoStruxure are owned by Schneider Electric, or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries.e-mail: [email protected] • APC UK - Unit 1 Ground Floor, 250 South Oak Way, Green Park, Reading, RG2 6UG • 998-2438AB

Making the connection between IT and facilities:

With today’s technology challenges, APC by Schneider Electric understands that data centres must be viewed as interconnected environments—from rack to row to room to building. We call this integration the data centre physical infrastructure or DCPI. The only clear path to highest availability and maximum efficiency, DCPI comprises power, cooling, physical security, and rack systems and is monitored and managed via software solutions and professional services.

Making the connection between efficiency and availability:

Today, maximised energy efficiency and guaranteed availability must work hand in hand. So APC by Schneider Electric offers integrated cooling strategies across the DCPI. This hybrid approach delivers true energy savings—but never at the expense of availability.

Making the connection between monitoring and managing:

We also can enable end-to-end monitoring and management of all DCPI domains. Our solutions provide visibility and interoperability across domains to optimise availability. Without this essential holistic capability and exclusive ‘single-pane’ view, rigid monitoring and management ‘silos’ constantly threaten both efficiency and availability while driving up costs.

And as part of Schneider Electric, APC has the consulting and services network, personal relationships, and real-world experience to give you the single point of contact you need to take your integrated data centre from envisioned to online.

APC by Schneider Electric uniquely delivers integrated solutions across data centre domains.

Effi cient energy management from plant to plug.

> rewoP The power domain connects it all – from generators to UPSs to PDUs – for cross-vendor interoperability.

> gnilooC Our highly effi cient integrated solutions combine chillers, perimeter cooling, hot aisle containment, and row-based options.

> ytiruceS lacisyhP Our single-seat view includes access control and surveillance across one or multiple facilities.

> smetsyS kcaR Interconnected, any-IT vendor-compatible rack enclosures, accessories, and air containment solutions support HD processing needs.

> secivreS Schneider Electric’s professional services provide one point of contact for data centre planning, building, and operation.

> tnemeganaM Our exclusive integrated software architecture removes management ‘silos’ for greater energy awareness and effi ciency and higher availability across the DCPI.

> Cooling

> Power

> Management

> Rack Systems> Physical Security

> Services

For Data Centres

contact Paul Foleytel +0044 (0)7973 699223email [email protected]

Getting started:VirtualizationThe smart path to virtualization is grounded in making the right choices.Virtualization offers new opportunities to simplify the way that you manage your IT resources. Introducing a virtual infrastructure to your business can drive down both cost and complexity. It can also drive up agility. So you canrespondquicklyandefficientlytochanging market demands. Get it right and virtualization can act as a platform foryourfutureITstrategy-havingasayon how you deliver your IT services and ensuring that you take your first step towards cloud computing.

Why virtualize? Virtualization is for any business that wants to enjoy:1. Simplified management.

2. Improved data protection and security.

3. Better utilisation of resources. Reducedserverandsoftwarecosts.Easier revision control.

Five steps to successful virtualization1. Carry out a comprehensive

assessment of your IT invironment so that you get a complete understanding of your current system capacity and utilisation, and energy use. It may reveal that your business needs to review current and future data availabilityrequirements.Orthatyourbusiness demands for server capacity are outstripping your IT budget.

2. Consider alternative virtualization platforms, taking into account scalability, extendable architecture, flexibleworkflowandeaseofadministration.

3. Work with a consultant to define your virtualization strategy and select appropriate virtualization software. Bear in mind that virtualization technologies are evolving at a rapid rate. So make sure that by taking advantage of today’s technology, you’re not limiting tomorrow’s options.

4. Put security and data protection at the top of your list of priorities when rolling out your virtualization project. Protect your data in both in its physical and virtual environments with adequate backups.

5. Make sure that you put appropriate system management tools in place now to avoid virtual server sprawl in the future.



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SRX SERIES SERVICES GATEWAYSA new branch office LAN design that meets branch office security, connectivity and performance challenges while enabling key IT initiatives. It also scales to flexibly accommodate new computing trends without an entire network redesign.

SecurityThe Internet is a pervasive and important part of

our lives. Whether your business is small or large,

you face the same significant security threats and

constant risks.

The SRX Series is a high performance firewall with

unmatched application protection, strong security

for access control, user authentication and attack

protection at the network and application level.

Enable a full suite of Unified Threat Management

(UTM) applications like Intrusion Prevention

System (IPS) Antivirus,Web filtering Antispamand

IPsecVPN.

ConnectivityRigorously tested carrier-class routing features of

IPv6/IPv4, OSPF, BGP and multicast have been

proven in over15 years of worldwidedeployments.

Rich set of WAN and LAN interface ports, direct

connectivity from ISP, on board Ethernet and

PoE/PoE+.

The power of Junos OS Performance & ReliabilityJunos OS provides the same technology, hardened

with carrier-class reliability used by core internet

routers in all of the top 100 Service providers

around the world.

Getting started:Cloud computingYour journey to the cloud depends on where you are now and where you plan to be in the future.Cloud computing is here to stay. And it’snotjustlarge-scaleorganizationsthat stand to reap the benefits. Now, evensmallandmedium-sizebusinessescanaffordtoaccessenterprise-classtechnology, allowing them to compete both on the national and global stage.

Why move to the cloud? If you’re confused by the cloud, think of it as any hosted service delivered over the internet. It can bring significant business benefits.

1. Cost savings through reduced energy consumption, lower operational costs and reduced software, hardware and support expenditure.

2. Improved productivity, greater mobility andflexibility.

3. Greater IT reliability, with less downtime and greater availability.

4. Flexible technology, with options to scale up or down to match your business needs.

5. Higher levels of security.

Five steps to navigating your way into the cloud1. Define what cloud computing

technologies will mean to your business. For example, how far do you expect the cloud to add functionality andefficiencytoyourbusiness?Doyoualreadyhaveallthein-housecapabilties you need?

2. Evaluate which cloud delivery offering best meets your business needs and budget. Is it best for your business to deploy via a private cloud, public cloud or a hybrid cloud infrastructure? Will it best be delivered with SaaS (software as a service), IaaS (infrastructure as a service), or Paas (platform as a service)?

3. Draw up a roadmap for your cloud computing strategy that covers at least the next two to three years. Technologies in this area are moving fast.

4. Make IT security your top consideration. Whilst the cloud does offer greater security, you still need to make sure that you maintain tight control of who has access to your applications and data.

5. Ensure that staff have adequate IT expertise.



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Getting started:Mobile workingBefore you set out on the path to mobility, you need to make sure that you have a smart strategy.More and more of us are taking advantage of an explosion of mobile devicestogetoutoftheoffice.We’rebecoming digital nomads, working fromsatelliteoffices,clientsites,homeofficesandremotelocations.Mobiletechnologies give us the freedom to work wherever and whenever is most effective.

Why choose a mobile solution?Growing the mobile capability of your business can bring real competitive advantages.

1. Higher levels of productivity. It’s widely accepted that employees who are able to email, access company data and edit documents on the move put in more time at work than those who cannot.

2. Increasedresponsiveness.Real-timeworking enables you to respond more efficientlytocustomerdemandsand react faster in an everchanging marketplace.

3. Moreflexibility.Mobiledevicesfreeemployees from their desks, giving them a choice of technology options that best suits their needs.

Five steps to going mobile1. Consider what your business would

like to get out of mobile working. Is your goal to improve customer service?Increaseefficiency?Reducecosts?

2. Compare the cost of implementing mobile solutions with the benefits that your business can expect to enjoy.

3. Evaluate your options for staying connected, not just in terms of hardware, but also from a connectivity and synchronisation standpoint. Careful planning at this stage will help to avoid adding unnecessary complexity to your IT system.

4. Consider whether you have the technical expertise to install the technology yourself, or whether you’ll need to take a trusted partner on board for implementation and ongoing support.

5. Ensure that you have adequate data securitysolutionsinplace.Ease-of-use matters, but you need to balance that with keeping your data secure. That means protecting business critical files and data stored on your employees’ laptops and other mobile devices. You also need to make sure that your IT network is safe from unwanted intrusion.



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Getting started:Outsourcing IT support

ThE DATA CENTER IS hERE

Want to focus less on day-to-day IT management and more on core business activities?Adding new technologies to your existing IT infrastructure can bring significant business benefits. However, it can also make the management of your IT environmentmoredifficult,takingupvaluable business resources and putting pressureonyourin-housetechnicalexpertise. Many IT activities can now be run as outsourced services, from the development and maintenance of applications, to whole IT systems. Even business activities such as IT service desk and support, traditionally looked after in house, can be transferred to a service provider.

Why outsource your IT?Done well, outsourcing part or all of your IT operations can bring great rewards, helping to drive innovation and excellence. It can also:

1.Reducecostsintermsofday-todayoperation and economies of scale. Increase service levelsin terms of efficiency,qualityandproductivity.

2.Leadtoenhancedflexibiltiyandresponsiveness.

3.Openupaccesstonewtechnologies.

4. Improve business continuity.

Five steps to outsourcing IT support1. Start by defining and aligning your IT

needs and business goals. This will help you select the right outsource service provider and will aid the collaborative effort.

2. Decide which specific IT operations you intend to outsource.

3. Determine the extent of service you need to be included in the service agreement. For example, are you looking at critical cover, contingency or basic support?

4. Anticipate change by making sure that scaleability is built into a contract. A single source for multivendor support willalsogiveyouaddedflexibilityandrelieve you of the burden of varied contracts and warranties.

5. Make sure that you feel comfortable with your chosen service provider. The importance of a relationship based on good communication should never be underestimated.

Learn moreMultivendor Hardware Support from Dell-forwhenyou’redealingwithmultiple vendors and need just one trusted technical partner.



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CommVault Data Management

We store data safely, thenretrieve it when needed

Discover what Dell and CommVault Simpana Software can solve for you by visiting the website

www.dell.com/commvault

Getting started:Taking the next step

Invest in careful planning. It’s the key to a successful project.Just getting on with an IT project might be tempting, particularly if time appears to be tight and you’re under pressure to deliver. However, with careful planning, projects can run on time, everyone involved will understand what is required and any potential problems can be flaggedupatanearlystage.

Four steps to making your IT project work for you1. Write a business case. Whatever the

scale of the invesment involved, you’ll need to justify a project’s priority over other potential projects. This includes looking at the purpose of the project, its strategic impact and any potential risks.

2. Create a detailed budget plan for your project as part of your business case. It’s worth investigating leasing and finance solutions that allow you to consolidate the cost of your IT project.

3. Write a project plan that outlines exactly what you and your team need to do to implement your IT project. This should specify the methods and tools, as well as the staff required.

4. Develop a deployment plan as part of your project plan. This should identify clear milestones that will allow you to monitor progress and retain control of the whole process. It’s also important to establish effective means of communication at this stage.

Need more help?If you need help navigating through your IT strategy, advice on financing and leasing programmes options, or just need a chat about your next IT project, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

Phone : 0844 444 3886 Web: www.dell.co.uk/itproject

What’s your next IT project?

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